Miles was awarded the GM title in 1976.  Aged 24 in 1980, he began the year by helping England to win the bronze medal in the European Team Championshios, winning a board parize and winning an historic victory over World Champion, Anatoly Karpov.  In April, Miles came equal first with Andersson and Korchnoi in the Phillips and Drew, London 1980, with a rating performance of 2660.  The tournament book described his performance as "... perhaps the best ever achievement by a British player."

Although Miles, as expected, eventually win the 17th Hull Congress with five wins, his victory did not come all that easily.  He started off okay with two quick wins:

S Robinson - AJ Miles
Hull Congress Open 1980

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 O-O 5.Nge2 d5 6.a3 Bd6 7.Ng3 c6 8.Bd3 e5 9.dxe5 Bxe5 10.Qc2 Be6 11.Nce2 Nbd7 12.f4 dxc4 13.Bxc4 Bxc4 14.Qxc4 Bc7 15.e4 Bb6 16.e5 Ng4 17.Ne4 Ndxe5 18.fxe5 Nxe5 19.Qc2 Nd3+ 20.Kf1 Re8 21.Bg5 Qd7 22.N4g3 Rxe2 0-1

AJ Miles - A Slinger
Hull Congress Open 1980

1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.h4 h6 5.Bf4 Bg7 6.Nf3 Nf6 7.Ne5 Nh5 8.Nxg6 Nxf4 9.Nxf4 e6 10.c4 fxe4? 11.Qh5+ 1-0

Tony must have been feeling pretty confident when it came to the third round.  However, it took all his Grandmaster's technique to avoid disaster against Hull's Chris Longthorp who, after declining a draw, finally went astray in the endgame.  Here is the game with notes by Chris from the December issue of Roger Noble's Gambit Magazine:

CC Longthorp - AJ Miles
Hull Congress Open 1980

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.c3 d5 4.e5

Trying to avoid theory.

4....d4 5.Bb5+ bd7 6.Bxd7+ Qxd7 7.d3 Nc6 8.O-O Nge7 9.c4 Ng6 10.Re1 Be7 11.Nbd2 h5

Planning to increase the pressure on White's e-pawn with the rook from h5.

12.a3 h4 13.b4

Undermining Black's advanced d-pawn.  If 13....cxb4 then 14.Nb3.

13....Rh5 14.bxc5 Rf5

If 14....Ncxe5 then 15.Nxe5 Rxe5 16.Rxe5 Nxe5 17.Ne4 when Black cannot play 17....f5 because of 18.Qh5+.

15.Ne4 Ncxe5 16.Nxe5 Nxe5 17.Bg5!! h3

If 17....Bxg5 then 18.Nd6+ and Nxf5 winning the exchange.

18.Bxe7 Kxe7 19.Ng3

Winning the exchange.

19....Rg5 20.Qd2 f6 21. f4 Rxg3 22.hxg3 h2+ 23.Kh1 Ng4 24.Rab1 Rh8 25.Qe2 f5 26.Qf3 Kf6

Hoping for 27.Rxb7 Qxb7 and 28.Qxb7 Nf2#.

27.Re2 Ne3 28.Rxe3 dxe3 29.Qxe3 Rh6 30.Qe5+ Kg6 31.d4 Kh7 32.d5 Rg6 33.Re1 exd5 34.cxd5 Rxg3 35.Qe6! Qd8

Black could not exchange queens because White's e-pawn would queen.

36.Qxf5+ Kh6 37.Re6+g6

At this point I was offered a draw which I declined and immediately made a bad move.

38.Qf6??

38.Qf7 followed by Re7 would have won, as would also 38.Kxh2 and 38.d6.

38....Qxf6 39.Rxf6 Rxa3 40.d6 Rd3 41.Rf7 b6 42.cxb6 axb6 43.d7 b5 44.Kxh2 b4 45.d8(q)? Rxd8 46.Rb7 Rd4 47.Kg3 Rd3+ 48.Kf2

48.Kg4 was obviously better, but from now on I was in bad time trouble, hence the quality of the play.

48....b3 49.g4 Re3 50.Ke2 Rg3 51.g5+ Kh5 52.Kf2 Re3 53.Rb6 Rh3 54.Kg2 Rd3 55.Kf2 Re3 56.Ke2 Rh3 57.Kf2 Kg4 58.Rb4 Rf3+ 59.Kg2 Re3 60.Kf2 Rc3 61.Ke2 Rh3 62.Kf2 Rd3 63.Ke2 Rc3 64.Kf2 Rc2+ 65.Ke2 b2 66.Kd3 Rf2 67.Ke3 Rf3+ 68.Ke2 Rh3 69.Kf2 Rh1 0-1

Another game from the 17th Hull Congress pitted two of the top Hull players, Richard Britton, and the late RP Ross.

R Britton - RP Ross
Hull Congress Open 1980

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Qd7 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 b6 7.Qg4 f5 8.Qg3 Ba6 9.Bxa6 Nxa6 10.Ne2 O-O-O 11.a4 Ne7 12.O-O Nc6 13.Qd3 Nab8 14.Bg5 Rde8 15.c4 h6 16.Bd2 dxc4 17.Qxc4 Nxe5 18.dxe5 Qxd2 19.Nd4 Qf4 20.Rfe1 c5 21.c3 Re7? 22.a5 Kb7? 23.axb6 axb6 24.Qa2? Nc6 25.Nxe6 Rxe6 26.Qxe6 Rc8 27.Qd5 Rc7 28.e6 Re7 29.Ra7+ Kxa7 30.Qxc6 Rb7 31.Ra1+ Kb8 32.Qe8+ Kc7 33.Qd7+ Kb8 34.Qd8#